Emerald City Swagger
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Washington Huskies Take Down #13 Utah On Senior Night

By James Silberman

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The Washington Huskies now have three wins over top-15 opponents. Not many teams can say that.

Unfortunately, they also have a few too many bad losses to still be considered for the NCAA Tournament. But that shouldn’t stop us from enjoying how awesome this game was. Dan Kingma and Giles Derickx played a lot of minutes today and the Dawgs took down the #13 team in the country.

UW played a Syracuse-like 2-3 zone, giving the Utes all the space they could ask for from the elbows, but Utah wasn’t able to make the Huskies pay. Derickx may be one of the worst offensive seven-footers I’ve ever watched, but he did his job on defense and on the boards against a daunting duo of low post players for Utah in Jakob Poeltl and Dallin Bachynski.

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Nigel Williams-Goss led the way offensively with 28 points on 11-18 shooting, also adding six boards, three assists and two steals. Utah has the probable Pac-12 Player of the Year in PG Delon Wright, but Goss victimized Wright all day long.

And the same could be said for Andrew Andrews and Utah’s Brandon Taylor. Andrews just can’t be guarded by undersized guards, he’s too fast and too strong. Andrews finished with 16 points, two assists and two steals.

Throw in X-factor Jernard Jarreau‘s 14 points, and a ridiculously efficient 15 points on six shots from senior night honoree, Mike Anderson, and you have all the components of an upset performance.

With an at-large bid out of reach, this win doesn’t appear to have many implications for the Dawgs. However, a win like this gives you something to build on heading into the offseason. With one of the best recruiting classes in the country entering the program next season, this was a big win.

Also, call me crazy, but this win has to give you just a little glimmer of hope. Not for 2016, but for right now.

Beating Utah without Shawn Kemp Jr. is more than impressive. Obviously Utah wasn’t on their A-game, but the Huskies played in sync offensively in a way they haven’t in a long time. Like, since Isaiah Thomas was here. 

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With Kemp returning for the Pac-12 tournament, I for one am going into next weekend with hope. Hope of what? A Championship.

Like I said, crazy right?

Here’s why.

Losing Robert Upshaw was not what made the Huskies fall apart. To be honest, I have no idea what made the Huskies fall apart, but it was at half-time of the 69-67 win over Oklahoma. UW lead the Sooners 40-27 at the break, and just tried to hold them off until the clock ran out from that point on. Fortunately, Oklahoma just ran out of time, but it was clear, this was not the same UW team. The win sent the Dawgs up to #11 in the country.

Two days later, a painfully close win over the American Athletic Conference’s eighth-place team, Tulane, kept them undefeated. But it was clear something was wrong. This would be confirmed with a 62-57 home loss to the Stony Brook Seawolves heading into conference play.

Three more losses sent the Huskies out of the rankings all together and so began the slide of the program back to the bottom of the Pac-12.

THEN came Upshaw’s dismissal.

If the Washington Huskies are back to playing like they were earlier in the season, I don’t care who they have out there. The Huskies can play with any team in this conference.

So there you have it. Be hopeful. Not expectant, maybe it’s too soon to say they are back after one game, no matter how great of a game it was.

But be hopeful.

Next: JaQuori McLaughlin Picks UW: A Teammates Perspective

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